Paraphrasis Podcast

The action of Did This Hand Kill? (Open Letter Books) largely takes places in Lviv, Ukraine, over several different time frames. In this bonus episode, Sean Gasper Bye adresses the city’s fascinating multicultural, multilingual history and how it impacted his Polish to English translation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Sean Gasper Bye discusses his 2024 translation of Cezary Łazarewicz's true crime thriller, Did This Hand Kill? (Open Letter Books). This historic who dun’ it explores Rita Gorgonowa’s sensational murder trial, a media event that scandalized interwar Poland. Just as the reader visits the lost world of Lwów, they are left wondering who really killed Gorgonowa's de facto stepdaughter on a cold December's night in 1931… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

As he translated The Tale of the Wall by Nasser Abu Srour, Luke was faced with a problem: how to convey the realities of a Palestinian refugee camp without blanching the figurative richness of Nasser’s writing. In this bonus episode, Luke tells us about two Arabic words for wall and the English equivalents he chose. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Anna sits down with Luke Leafgren for a conversation about his translation of the Palestinian literary memoir The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour, published in April 2024 by Penguin Random House. Anna and Luke dive into urgent topics, discussing the politics of translating Palestinian literature, the challenges of collaborating with an author serving a life sentence in prison, and the groundbreaking qualities of Nasser Abu Srour’s prose, in which literary and philosophical forms inflect a testimony of occupation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Because ‘mama’ is often the first word we ever learn to say, it can be surprisingly challenging to translate. Jess discusses ‘mama’ and its many synonyms, and fills us in on a humorous run-in with a living author… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Anna meets Jess Jensen Mitchell in Katowice, Poland  —  once a hub of Central Europe’s coal mining industry —  to talk about her translation of Dominika Słowik’s eco-critical short story collection, Self-Sowing. Jess recalls an adventure that led her to publish a story from the collection, “Blizzard”(Two Lines Journal), and how she learned to find humanity in nonhuman characters. She also hints at an upcoming project. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Poorna Swami discusses her in-progress Urdu to English translation of Murmurs, a collection of love letters written by Safiya Akhtar. While looking for something to read in her grandmother’s study, Poorna found a scintillating glimpse into the tumultuous romance between the author and her poet husband. Anna and Poorna delve into the challenges of translating elaborate declarations of love into a different language and adapting intimate correspondence for performance and publication.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Kareem discusses the challenges of translating character names rife with meaning or derived from Kurdish encounters with other world cultures. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Anna talks to Kareem Abdulrahman about his translation of The Last Pomegranate Tree (Archipelago Books) by Bachtyar Ali. Based in Germany, Bachtyar has received the Nelly Sachs Prize (2017) and the Hilde-Domin-Prize (2023). Kareem’s translation was recently shortlisted for the 2023 National Books Critics Circle Award. Kareem tells us about producing the first-ever English translation of a Kurdish novel, finding the universal in Bachtyar’s prose, and his experience of the Kurdish comedy scene.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com